Where has Mizou been all this time?

I finally found my password to get back into this blog of my avatar Mizou Vavoom on Second Life.
Mizou has done very little building as ‘I’ have been writing a manual for the last year; some information about this Web Design Manual for students is on my personal website Click here to view . The RSS feed directs you to the work I have done sofar.
When wil Mizou start building and blogging again?
That is a good question I am asking myself too!

Happy New Year 2008 to all Second Life Residents!!

This year 2008 started well, friendships in real life and online abound, partnerships are growing and in Second Life I have produced a small version of a Roman Villa i had made last year. It’s ‘Villa Martine’. Why ‘Martine’? this is my real life name but also it is a Roman name which means poet, warrior, lover of music.

This roman home is for sale in my shop ‘Carpe Diem Design’ on Cosy Cove, after arrival at telehub go left, it is second last build on the quays. (add slurl)

Or go to Slexchange and view my items for sale. (add link)

This roman villa is suitable for a small plot on SL.

Portage Bay Ventures

Bringing the building to life.

Continued from Portage Bay Ventures/ Project May /June 2007′

A building is more then a few walls glued together and some teleportation; it is also a ’space’ where people primarily find the information or objects they were looking for and in second place where they feel comfortable and want to come back to again and again.
This is what I am working at the moment in the Justice Center, making sure that the information contained in the place is easily accessible & accurate and also making sure that avatars feel at home in the ’space’ that the building offers.
This is not as small thing and do realise that I put as much effort in the ’space’ as I would in my real life ‘home space’.

Project May/June 2007:

Portage Bay Ventures:

Boardwalk, boathouses & ‘Justice Center’ for Second Life in the sea.

Sibernicus, Malfelonius & Yeeowler are 3 sims at the east south tip of a big landmass in Second Life® purchased by Beathan Vale of the ‘Portage Bay Ventures’

The vision was the following: take 3 fresh new sims, add water, and a zigzagging boardwalk into the sea, a huge statue of Lady Justice and fill it with houseboats, a promenade, a pier and an enormous courthouse in the sea.

The real life building maquette of the Federal Courthouse in Miami.

‘Carpe Diem Design’ has been commissioned to build the various parts of this project:

1. A shopping area along the coastal part of the boardwalk
2. Various houseboats floating on the water around the boardwalks (3 have already been designed at this stage)
3. An eight storey high courthouse sitting on pillars right behind the statue of ‘Lady Justice’

This is how it looks for the moment: platform partially build, teleporting area done with banisters and space for posters, logo done by nabil Ulich, my associate in ‘Carpe Diem Design’ (created last night, Friday, sometime near midnite, he was in his sitting room at his computer in North-Africa while I was here in Ireland in the Wicklow Mountains, we work together but have never met in real life…strange to some but true)

The following photos show the build with the logo in place…

08 June 2007 – 4 minutes past midnite in Ireland

Done some more planning today …but first a heartwarming picture taken from a distance looking at the burgeoning ‘Justice Center; a penthouse has been planned for this center, I have no problem imagining a roofgarden overlooking the bay, the boathouses and the boardwalk on a warm summer night when the sun is just declining in the west………..

The renewed plan is as follows:

The Justice Center will have a west and an east wing separated by a lobby area which will have a room on the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th floor.

Each wing will house 4 courtrooms spanning over 2 floor heights so that the room height of the courtrooms will have ample space for avatars to navigate in.

08 June 2007

Today’s plan: finishing the window panels on either side of the ‘bow’ part of the building. As this building is shaped like a ship inside waves, it has walls with windows that suggest waves on either side of the bow of the ship. The windows themselves will be made from a coloured prim with high shininess so that it will reflect the surrounding light; from the inside the prim will be transparent but not from the outside.

The real life Federal Courthouse in Miami which serves as inspiration for this project; notice the ‘bow’ and the wave like design on the side walls & below these walls made in Second Life®

Working on the bow

This isn’t easy as it goes from wide at the bottom, the part which ploughs into the sea, to a narrower part which ends into a point at the top of the building.
I have devised a method to find the shape of this bow, the picture should explain it.

The red lines which are prims have been put in place to define the shape of the bow.
Then the spaces between the main building and the bow shape will be filled with prims some of which are triangular and put in place with a VERTEX prim. this ingeninious tool fills a space between 3 vertex spheres; excellent for awkward shape.

It is free so anybody who wants one can im me in world and i drop one on their profile.

Carolyn’s Waterfall – February ‘07

Just looking at my blog..it’s in a bad state, I haven’t written anything since November last year, but I have an excuse as my building skills have been in very high demand and I really have lost track of what i have build.

My very last creation delivered 2 days ago is one of my favourites, it is a free standing waterfall with a pool for a client whose name is Carolyn.

One can add swim prim water available from Siggy Romulus to my waterfall and happily swim in the pool and the cascade.

The water is my own seemless texture with sound and movement , so is the spray and the wet pebbles at the bottom of the pool. All these textures will be available in TRU TEXTURES shop on ‘English Rose’ sim (add slurl) by the 14 th of February 07.

The scripted spray itself will be available in my Cosy Mall at the entrance on Cosy Cove.(add slurl)

I sell no copy of any of my custom orders so if you like to buy a copyable standing waterfall from me I will build it from basics to suit your land.

Anyhow to give you an idea of my waterfall building skills…have a look at the photos…

‘Cosy Shire’ the new ‘in’ place to live & relax.

Together with a few of the initial residents ofCosy Home & Cosy Cove we have retreated to the our new homeland on Cosy Shire, led by Melina Loonie our Chief, Angel Sunset, Geoff Steinbeck, myself and Syl Normandy & Kalle Click have chosen our home plots on Cosy Shire. As our resident muse & real life artist put it, ‘Cosy Shire’ is the new ‘in‘ place to be, the ‘posh side of Cosy Island’. Our artist Vanettda lives in a grotto under the water in Cosy Island Harbour; when u sail or swim over his house, a friendly alert message pops up on your screen. Can you find the entrance to his underwater grotto?

We also have fairly new residents on Cosy Shire, our resident biologist (?) who specialises in natural plant habitat (add sim name) and who is also a keen sailor, has taken up residence near Cosy Shires caves. My new distinguished neighbour goes by the name of Delia Lake and to me it brings up scents of homeliness and peace. The name ‘Delia’ is forever associated in my consciousness with ‘breadmaking’ and home sweet home. Delia Lake has started to grow a vegetable garden on her new land.

Delia building on her Cosy Shire land to left of picture and Geoff & Tully to the right.

Of course Geoffrey Steinbeck or Jefke as I call him is my nexdoor neighbour on Cosy Shire; I choose a plot beside his within earshot of Mel’s spooky caves on the extreme south-east of our Cosy Island.

Across from my cavern caves and waterfall another new resident to Cosy Island has taken residence in an English country manor.

Jeremy is an artist who has designed the textures and shape of his castle and hopes to sell it to newbies, so he is aiming for low prim and elegance. His castle totally fits the area and is now an indelible part of the landscape around the delta of the Shire caves river.

By the way Melina, can we name the different water channels? Vote for names at an official ceremony? Just an idea …………….
Looky, a new resident to cosy has bought the land to the North of the caves and when i sailed by earlier, testing the waters and winds, i saw a circular build and a platform.

I love watching people build their home or see what they have chosen to buy given the theme of Cosy Shire which is ‘organic houses or dwellings’.

Beside Looky’s land, there is a wooden structure on stilts, Syl & Kalle’s retreat.

Well done Syl, it looks real natural in its surroundings even the raven flying aroound makes us wonder how long ago that place has been build.

Here a few pictures of Kalle & Syls’ retreat:

This house is at the border of 2 sims, Cosyshire & Cosy Home. the picture to the left is looking due south in th edirection of Mel’s spooky caves and to be waterfall.

The second picture is looking towards Brigadoon, you can see the mist exuding from the building because true to the legend this village apperas in the sky eery 100 years or so.

Brigadoon is a Second Life game, more on SL games in another blog

The picture to the right shows 2 roofs: the hobbit type of house across from my own land and the treetrunk house. Directly opposite this retreat Mel has installed a medieval type of shooting range, again more on at a later date.
This brings us back to ‘Brigadoon’ itself on Cosy Home where Geoff build a ‘curly bridge’ as he called it to access that area from that bridge you walk onto another one and enter the ‘Churches of The Grail’ which i have visited on many occasions, as her creator , Sudane Erato is one of my very best sl friends; ‘The Churches of the Holy Grail were relocated from a different sim onto Cosy Home last spring time.
I need to re-explore the entire sim as the addition of Cosy Shire has totally changed and enhanced our surroundings….as a few remarked and it needs to be mentioned here too: Cosy Island is a paradise of peace and beauty!

If you want to be part of our Cosy Island residents and buy a plot we have a number of plots available on Cosy Shire. (im Melina Loonie)

If u want to rent a plot with house and all mod coms, im myself, Mizou Vavoom, or my rental agent, Pamela Princess for ‘Carpe Diem Rentals’ vacancies.
Angel Sunset has her ‘tree dwelling’ relocated on the coast of Shire just outside the harbour and diagonally opposite the lighthouse.
Our’dear lighthouse’ with its cafe, stands proudly as a reminder of the early days of ‘Cosy Home’ which was build way before i was born by Dianne Mechanique & Sky Honey, Pacifien & Myrrh Massiel.

I consider these ladies as my Second Life ancestors and mentors together with Ray Musketeer and his partner rudytuzsday Elliot of Felhzgut Design.
The following are a few photos from my new land. Designed over a week after real life work and also after Second Life work.

Mizou’s Secret Caves , waterfall & cavern. The view, the waterfall with the cavern.

First the cavern beside the waterfall has 3 secret entrances, if u are a newbie (under 3 months old in Second Life) and you have found the 3 entrances, you im me to let me know where they are and i will give you 100 L$; My cavern will record your name at the 3 entrances…no copycats!

The interior of the Secret caves which is now my private home with my brandnew red & beach dining room from a new creaotor Lola Nadir.

The backdrop wall with red curtains was made by Vanettda and gives a warm and friendly atmosphere to my home.

My friend Van helped me setting out the water for the waterfall also and then proceeded to make this abolutely gorgious viewpoint overlooking the waterfall. We had a well deserved cup of green tea by the waterfall after creating it.

The peace in this nature spot is palpable. He then took out a copy of the wrought iron seats and the umbrella table whichhe designed for the ‘Dancing Dolphin’ and we had the privelege to savour a vew peaceful moments.

On the photo Van is looking for the future into his tealeaves…

Pacifien Massiel, dropped in from the skies, complete with her new leather bag (what doess he keep in that bag of hers?) and we enjoyed once more her witty mind.

Your friendship is very alive in our hearts Pacifien!!

I am very fond of Pac, she showed extreme patience when i was just a baby back in January 2006 and explained to me the basics of prim building.

Cosy Island News: Mr.Cosy Home & Mrs. Cosy Cove…announce (baby) Cosy Shire

Earlier this month Melina Loonie our Cosy Island Chief brought home the newly baked sim, named ‘Cosy Shire’. At first it was flat and green and perfectly square.

Map of Cosy Islands : top left:Cosy Home, top right: Cosy Cove;

Bottom right: Cosy Shire, which is still under construction.

Now it boasts a spinetingling cave with secret entrances, and echo producing inner chambers.

As our 3 sims have a fair amount of water for sailing purpose and we want to continue in that tradition started by Myrrh & Pacifien Massiel, I was asked to go on a sailing-ability test sail around the new sim.

So i asked Geoff to help me out and warned him of my lack of marine legs & twice he lifted up the ‘Flying Taco’ to avoid being stranded.

The following pictures were taken last night 9 GMT time.

Yesterday the Lindens celebrated our 1.000.000 residents by adding the Second Life Logo and the number inside the sun and the moon which is visible on the Flying Taco close-up.

The side of Cosy shire which is near to the entrance to the harbout is not sail worthy; as for the other side Geoff put a red marker where we had to left the boat.

Thanks to Geoff for his help and to Melina to provide with such lovely Second Life landscapes to work and meet people.

6. A roof over ‘Cosy Mall’ & a new build done in a week!

This is the middle of October and ‘Cosy Mall’ has been finished for the last week. I started building the roof (the easy bits) and Geoff took over building the bits which went around a corner, he did it beautifully and thanks to SL gods ‘Cosy Mall’ is now one unit and not just a few walls and shopfronts.

In the mean time I received an order from a client who has been living on ‘Cosy Island’ in fact his house is on Syl Normandy’s land, who is my neighbour on 2 sides on’Cosy Cove’ part of our island. Alex Philo requested a house wit two distinct features.

The first one was the size and shape of the downstairs of his house must be replicated and the roof must be less high. the following picture from a previous blog show the size and roof of this house.

This roof has been stickin glike a sore thumb in our village landscape and we were all very aware of it; I instinctively knew that at some stage I would build a newer and more convenient version of that house; so I was not very worried about it.

Last week end, around friday or Saturday, alex approached me and asked would i build him a house with simliar features as my hacienda type pillar and fountain home on ‘Tir na Og’ on Cosy Cove;

I took up this challenge and build & textured this mediteranean home with roofgarden over the space of a week.

5. End Sept 06:Walls & outlining spaces inside ‘Cosy Mall’

This is the beginning of October and ‘Cosy Mall’ is nearly finished.

Before it was even totally build, it was already filling up with vendors from the following Second Life companies: ‘Noe Design’, a young frenchman, who builds beautiful spiral staircase and othe staircases; ‘Wolkam Winger Design’ or ‘WWD’, another frenchman who crafts modern furniture with such an ease, i watch him work many times. He is also the main reporter and editor of the French site on Second Life, ‘Slobserver.com’ to which team i belong too; (Shoes); ‘Rebbel Island Networked Vendors’ from Jack Hathor, who designs scripted vendors: flat ones, holo ones, networked ones etc, as well as anything that requires a script to run, he is ur man!; ‘Carpe Diem Design’ from myself, Mizou Vavoom, i build & texture houses, shops, niteclubs, anything that is a ’space’ for living or working, as well as oriental carpets, light, rotating and sliding doors; ‘Felzgut Design’ from rudy2tuezday elliot with her lovely oillamps, bookcase and comfortable chair; ‘Simply Britnee’ a lovely & generous woman who designs hairpieces for men and women;

My main concern was to open ‘Cosy Mall’ for business in time for ‘Cosy Island’ birthday early October 2006. So i asked a few people to exhibit their creations in my shop and also gave 3 new creators to Second lIfe a chance to exhibit at very low price.

The roof remained unfinished long after the shop filled up but at least it had shape and even a few very old walls, from (supposedly) a previous build

4. Building the garden between the shops & building Cosy Mall

Last week end i started to think of how to set out a garden in the triangle between what will be the new shopping mall on Cosy Cove. I had some idea what i wanted, triangular planters, a bench, some plants, maybe flowers and a sense of peace. I quickly realised that the entrance to my new ‘Carpe Diem Design’ shop should be on the telehub side of the mall, so people can enter Cosy Mall from the beach and from the garden entrance of ‘Carpe Diem Design’. I had several attempts at working out the planters but could not get the triangular ones I really wanted to make until Geoff came online on Monday and with his help we made 3 lovely planters with palmtrees and flowers. Two benches (might change them) are ready for weary shoppers or just people who want to enjoy our cosy harbour.

A peacefull garden right between the shops and beside the harbour..we just need a few boats now bobbing on the water…

Ravenna Eponym who is a newbie (under 3 months in Second Life) and already producing beautifull art needs a shop to show & sell her creations; she now rents the ideal place for a mini-shop in ‘Cosy Mall’ right beside the path and opposite her home and workshop on Cosy Home the first sim of the Cosy Islands.

Ravenna was advised to make a logo for her beautiful art and she did that in a record time; next time i logged on she had her logo on her shop window: Imaginarte

Excellent logo and the best of luck to all the people who will exhibit in ‘Cosy Mall’ and also to Syl Normandy who bought what used to be Van’s art gallery: ‘The Flying Peach’.

And here it is the entrance to the new ‘Carpe Diem Design’ where i will sell houses, shops, doors of various types, privacy windows, carpets, baths, arches with seats, etc possibly a few freebies like T-shirts with a promotional logo.

Geoff looked after the first floor and has been shaping it around the top.

The other side of the shop has a totally different architecture….till next blog on Cosy developments!